Fake silver is harder to spot by eye than fake gold, because the commonest fakes are silver-coloured all the way through. Nickel silver, polished steel and silver-plated brass can pass for sterling on a table. They give themselves away to a magnet, an ice cube or a kitchen scale. Read the stamp first, run the harmless tests in order, and save the acid for the pieces that are still in doubt.
Start with the stamp
Look inside a ring band, on the clasp or the little tag beside it on a chain, on the back of a pendant, and under the handle of a spoon or the base of a tray. A phone camera zoomed in, or a 10× loupe, is enough. The marks fall into two groups.
- A claim of solid silver: 925, .925, STERLING or STER mean sterling silver, 92.5% silver and usually 7.5% copper. 999 or FINE is fine silver; 958 is the Britannia standard; 900 or COIN is coin silver; and 800 or 835 are older European standards — the number is always parts of silver per thousand.
- No claim of solid silver: EP, EPNS, SP and “silver plated” mean a thin coat of silver over another metal. Nickel silver, German silver and alpaca are an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc with no silver in it at all — the name describes the colour.
The rules behind the words are stricter than the marks people punch. In the United States, “sterling” and “solid silver” may only be used on silver at least 925 parts in 1,000 fine, “coin silver” needs 900, and silver plate may never be marked sterling. In the UK, anything sold as silver and weighing 7.78 g or more must carry a hallmark struck by an assay office after testing: the maker’s mark, the fineness number and the office’s own mark, often with a walking lion — the traditional sign for sterling. Our UK hallmark decoder reads a full set, and the ring stamp decoder handles the short codes found inside bands.
A stamp is still only a claim. A 925 punch costs a counterfeiter nothing, while an independent hallmark is far harder to fake. Silence proves nothing either: small pieces, old hand-made work and resized rings are often unmarked. That is what the tests are for.
The tests, from harmless to definitive
1. The magnet test
Silver isn’t attracted to a magnet — strictly, it is very weakly repelled. Hold a strong neodymium magnet to the piece: if it grabs, there is steel, iron or nickel in it, and it isn’t solid silver whatever the stamp says. The test only works in one direction. Copper, brass, nickel silver, aluminium and some stainless steels don’t stick either, so no pull proves very little. Check the body of the piece, not the clasp: clasp springs are steel even on real silver chains.
2. Look where it wears
Plating goes first where a piece is rubbed: the high points of a pattern, the edges of a ring, the links of a chain, the back of a spoon where it rests on the table. Under a loupe, a yellow or pink tint means brass or copper coming through; a duller grey patch in a bright surface can be nickel silver under a worn plate. Solid silver wears to more silver — scratched, but the same colour all the way down.
3. The ice test
Silver conducts heat better than any other metal, about 429 W/(m·K). Put an ice cube on the piece and another on something of similar size that isn’t metal, both at room temperature. On silver the cube starts to melt almost at once and a pool spreads around it within seconds. It works best on flat, heavy pieces — coins, bars, trays, spoons — and barely at all on a thin ring. The catch is copper, at about 401 W/(m·K): fast melting rules out steel and nickel silver, which conduct heat many times less well, but not copper or silver-plated copper. Put it together with the magnet and the stamp.
4. Weigh it in air and in water
Fine silver weighs about 10.5 times as much as the same volume of water and sterling about 10.4, while brass, copper and nickel silver sit around 8.4 to 8.9 and stainless steel near 8. The gap is smaller than with gold, so the method needs care. Weigh the piece dry. Then stand a cup of water on the scale, zero it, and hang the piece in the water on a thread so that it is fully under and touching nothing. The reading is the weight of the water it pushes aside, which in grams equals its volume in cubic centimetres. Divide the dry weight by it. Our gold test guide walks through the same method with a calculator.
A 5-gram sterling ring pushes aside under half a gram of water, so a kitchen scale reading to 0.1 g can’t separate it from brass. You need a jewelry scale that reads to 0.01 g, and the heavier the piece the better. Hollow items, weighted candlesticks and anything set with stones will read low; test solid, plain pieces.
5. The acid test
Jewelers and buyers use a silver testing solution: a tiny file mark in a hidden spot, so the test reaches below any plating, then a drop of the solution, whose colour reaction tells silver from base metal and gives a rough idea of the fineness. Kits are cheap, but the solution is a strong acid and the test marks the piece. If you’re selling, a buyer will usually run it in front of you; on something you mean to keep, let someone practised do it.
6. An electronic tester
Some buyers and pawnshops use an electronic precious-metal tester that reads the surface through a probe. It is quick and leaves no mark, but it only reads what is on top, so a thick plating can pass. A buyer who doubts the result will file through and test underneath.
7. XRF — the answer, not a guess
An X-ray fluorescence analyser reads the elements in the metal in seconds without touching it and prints the alloy — so much silver, so much copper. It is the test to ask for before you sell, insure or pay real money. Its blind spot is depth: it reads the outer layer, so a heavy silver plate can read as silver unless the buyer checks a worn edge or a filed spot.
Is it a ring? Ring Identifier: Jewelry Value reads the style, the setting and the stones from a photo and gives a ballpark of what the ring is and what it might be worth. It sees colour, not purity — use it to decide which pieces deserve an acid or XRF test, not instead of one.
Four “tests” that prove nothing
- The bleach test. Bleach turns silver black within minutes — and silver plate just as fast. It can pit and stain the surface for good, and it tells you nothing the stamp and a magnet don’t.
- The lighter test. A flame doesn’t tell silver from plated brass or nickel silver. It can leave a dark stain on sterling, loosen solder and crack stones.
- Toothpaste and the white-cloth rub. Black marks on the cloth are tarnish coming off, and silver plate tarnishes too. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive: it polishes, it doesn’t test, and it scratches.
- Water without a scale. Every metal sinks. A piece that drops to the bottom of a glass has proved nothing; only the weighed version in test 4 measures anything.
Putting the results together
- 925 or sterling stamp, no magnetic pull, fast melt, no other metal showing — very likely sterling. Get an XRF reading before a sale or insurance.
- EP, EPNS, SP, nickel silver or German silver — plated or no silver at all. What it’s worth is the object, not the metal.
- Strong magnetic pull — not solid silver, whatever the stamp says.
- No stamp, no pull, density near 10.4 — promising and unproven. Have it tested before you decide anything.
- Gold-coloured and stamped 925 — vermeil: gold over sterling silver. The gold is thin; the silver underneath is real.
- Do first
- Read the stamp, then the magnet
- Rules it out
- A magnetic pull, another metal showing through, density below about 9.5
- Rules it in
- Acid, an electronic tester or XRF — not a home test
- Silver numbers
- Sterling 92.5% · ≈ 10.4 g/cm³ · 429 W/(m·K)
- Not silver at all
- Nickel silver, German silver, alpaca
- Skip
- Bleach, lighter, toothpaste and floating
The takeaway
The home tests catch fakes; they don’t certify silver. A stamp, a magnet, an ice cube and a 0.01 g scale will sort most pieces in a few minutes, and the ones that pass all four are worth an acid or XRF test by someone who does it every day. If you are sorting a whole jewelry box, our guide to real versus costume jewelry covers the rest of the pile, and what is my ring worth explains how a verified piece turns into an offer.
At a glance
| Test | What it tells you | Risk to the piece |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp | The claimed standard (925, 800, 999) or a plating mark (EP, EPNS, SP) | None |
| Magnet | A pull rules silver out; no pull proves little | None |
| Wear check | Yellow, pink or grey metal showing through a plating | None |
| Ice cube | Fast melting rules out steel and nickel alloys — not copper | None |
| Density (dry weight ÷ water displaced) | Sterling ≈ 10.4 g/cm³; brass, copper and nickel silver ≈ 8.4–8.9 | None |
| Acid (silver testing solution) | Silver or not, and a rough fineness | Small file mark, acid |
| Electronic tester | A reading of the surface metal | None |
| XRF | The exact alloy of the surface layer | None |
Frequently asked questions
What does 925 mean on silver?
925 parts in 1,000 are silver: it is sterling silver, 92.5% silver and usually 7.5% copper. In the United States the words “sterling” and “solid silver” may only be used on silver at least that fine.
Does a magnet stick to real silver?
No. Silver is not attracted to a magnet, so a strong pull means steel, iron or nickel inside. The reverse doesn’t hold: copper, brass and nickel silver don’t stick either, so no pull proves little on its own.
Is nickel silver or German silver real silver?
No. Nickel silver — also sold as German silver or alpaca — is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc, typically 60/20/20, with no silver in it. EPNS means electroplated nickel silver: a thin coat of silver over that alloy.
Why does real silver turn black?
Tarnish. Sulfur compounds in the air slowly form black silver sulfide on the surface, and sterling tarnishes faster than fine silver because of its copper. Tarnish shows there is silver on the surface — silver plate tarnishes too — so it is not proof of solid silver.
Does the bleach test work?
It blackens silver quickly, but it blackens silver plate just as fast and can pit and stain the piece for good. You learn nothing a magnet and a stamp won’t tell you, and you may ruin the item.
Can silver be real without a stamp?
Yes. Small pieces are often unmarked — in the UK, silver under 7.78 g doesn’t have to be hallmarked — and resizing, polishing and old hand-made work also leave silver without marks. A jeweler can test it with acid, an electronic tester or XRF.
Sources and further reading
- 16 CFR § 23.5 — Misrepresentation as to silver content — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- Hallmarking — The Birmingham Assay Office
- Sterling silver — Wikipedia
- Silver — Wikipedia
- Nickel silver — Wikipedia
- Copper — Wikipedia
- Hallmark — Wikipedia
- X-ray fluorescence — Wikipedia
Links checked November 2, 2026.
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